The Latest on the mosquito-born Zika virus, which is linked to brain deformities in babies (all times CDT):

WEDNESDAY

7 p.m.
The head of the Pan American Health Organization says more resources are needed quickly if the region is to fight the Zika outbreak.

Carissa Etienne told health ministers from Latin America holding an emergency meeting in Uruguay on Wednesday that every nation in the region needs to devote more money to expand mosquito control campaigns, bolster health services and educate the public on the dangers.

Etienne says governments also must do more to track the spread of Zika as well as suspected complications from the virus, including microcephaly and Guillain-Barre syndrome. Brazilian researchers suspect the explosive spread of Zika is tied to an increase in microcephaly and Guillain-Barre cases, though scientists have not yet proven a link.

Etienne also told the ministers they should act now even though there is not yet a complete understanding of Zika. In her words: "One fact of which we are unequivocally sure is that the Zika virus--like dengue, chikungunya and yellow fever viruses--is transmitted by the Aedes aegypti mosquito. The most effective control measures are the prevention of mosquito bites and the reduction of mosquito populations."

4:50 p.m.
Brazil's president says Zika virus has gone from a "distant nightmare" to a "real threat" against the Brazilian people.

In a pre-recorded, prime time television address Wednesday, Dilma Rousseff calls on citizens to unite to combat the mosquito that transmits the virus, which researchers in Brazil have linked to a rare birth defect. She describes concrete measures people can take to eliminate the mosquito's breeding grounds in their homes.

She also has "words of comfort" for the women who have given birth to babies with the birth defect, microcephaly, saying: "We will do everything, absolutely everything, to protect you."

She says the government iss mobilizing to develop a vaccine but insists that until it's ready, the best course of action remains to prevent the mosquito from breeding.

4:15 p.m.
The agency responsible for most of Canada's blood supply says people who have traveled outside of Canada, the continental United States and Europe will be ineligible to give blood for 21 days after their return.

Canadian Blood Services says it is implementing the waiting period to mitigate the risk of the Zika virus entering the Canadian blood supply.

In a release Wednesday, the agency said the new waiting period is being implemented across the country and will take full effect in all of its clinics starting on Feb. 5.

Quebec's blood operator, Hema-Quebec, will be implementing the same change as of this Sunday.

Canadian Blood Services says the 21-day period ensures enough time has passed for the virus to be eliminated from a person's bloodstream, but it is asking people to postpone donation for at least a month after returning from travel outside the specified zones.

"This new temporary deferral period will safeguard Canada's blood supply against the Zika virus, and will also help us protect against other similar mosquito-borne viruses," Dr. Dana Devine, chief medical and scientific officer for Canadian Blood Services, said in a statement.

4:05 p.m.
International health officials tell The Associated Press that Brazil has yet to share enough samples and disease data needed to answer the most worrying question about the Zika outbreak: whether the virus is actually responsible for the increase in the number of babies born with abnormally small heads in Brazil.

The lack of data is frustrating efforts to develop diagnostic tests, drugs and vaccines. Laboratories in the United States and Europe are relying on samples from previous outbreaks. Scientists say having so little to work with is hampering their ability to track the virus' evolution.

One major problem appears to be Brazilian law. At the moment, it is technically illegal for Brazilian researchers and institutes to share genetic material including blood samples containing Zika and other viruses.

3:35 p.m.
A U.S. travel alert has been issued for two more destinations because of the Zika virus.
Health officials Wednesday added Jamaica and Tonga in the South Pacific to the list of places with outbreaks where travelers should protect themselves against the mosquito-borne virus.

There are now 30 travel destinations on the list, most of them in Latin America or the Caribbean.

The government recommends that pregnant women postpone trips to those destinations because of a suspected link between the virus and a birth defect, seen mostly in Brazil.

3:15 p.m.
Member countries of the Central American Integration System have agreed to implement a regional action plan to fight the Zika virus in the coming days.

Salvadoran Public Health Minister Violeta Menjivar says the foreign and health ministers of Central American countries and the Dominican Republic agreed to the plan in a video conference on Wednesday.

The ministers also agreed to mobilize the population, public institutions and private organizations to destroy mosquito breeding sites and take measures to prevent bites, especially of pregnant women.

Menjivar, who early participated in the World Health Organization conference, said "the most important effort must be the destruction of (mosquito) breeding grounds, nothing is more important."

2:15 p.m.
Florida Gov. Rick Scott has declared a health emergency in four counties of the state because of the Zika virus. At least nine cases of the mosquito-borne illness have been detected in Florida.

Health officials believe all of the cases are from people who contracted the disease while traveling to affected countries. Scott signed the order Wednesday to cover Miami-Dade, Lee, Hillsborough and Santa Rosa counties. The Zika virus is linked to brain deformities in babies and is causing concern among public health officials worldwide. The virus is primarily spread through mosquito bites, but investigators had been exploring the possibility it could be sexually transmitted.

U.S. health officials say a person in Texas became infected with Zika through sex in the first case of the illness being transmitted within the United States.

2 p.m.
Brazil's Health Ministry is calling for deeper investigation into studies on the transmission of Zika, following reports out of Texas that the virus had been spread through sex. The Health Ministry said in a statement Wednesday that "until now, there is no proof of the transmission of Zika through sexual relations." The ministry underscored its longstanding recommendation of condom use to prevent sexually transmitted diseases. U.S. health officials said Tuesday a person in Texas became infected with Zika through sex. The World Health Organization says that the reported case of sexually transmitted Zika virus is raising concerns.

1:40 p.m.
Brazil's health regulator Anvisa is authorizing the registry of laboratory tests that can detect the dengue, chikungunya and Zika viruses. Anvisa spokesman Carlos Lopes said from Brasilia on Wednesday that two tests will be able to spot all three viruses using antibodies from the illnesses, and several months after a person has been infected. Two other tests can identify the viruses but only one at a time and only if the person was infected while being tested. Lopes says the tests are expected to help improve the accuracy of diagnoses between the three viruses that are transmitted by the same Aedes aegypti mosquito. A German and a Brazilian lab are now in charge of the registry to carry out the tests before the Brazilian government distributes it to other accredited labs.

1:30 p.m.
Mexico has launched a radio and television ad campaign to encourage pregnant women to take measures to avoid getting Zika. Mexico has only 37 confirmed cases, none of them among pregnant women. But the Health Department says pregnant women should take special care after babies were born in Brazil with extremely small heads, possibly related to their mothers being infected with the Zika virus. The broadcast ads urge pregnant women to wear long-sleeved clothing, use mosquito repellant and keep windows and doors closed. The ads are scheduled to run at least through March, and tell women the disease "could seriously affect your pregnancy."

11:40 a.m.
Latin American health ministers meeting in Uruguay are focusing on why Zika has been linked to birth defects in Brazil but not in other countries where the virus has been detected. Colombian Health Minister Alejandro Gaviria told The Associated Press Wednesday that researchers need to look at what may be fueling the differences in manifestations. He gave the example of Colombia, where 20,000 cases of Zika have been confirmed but not a single case of microcephaly, or smaller than normal head size in infants. Brazilian officials have recorded 3,670 suspected cases of microcephaly since October. Brazil's Heath Ministry says the rare brain defect in babies has been confirmed in 404 of those cases. Infants with microcephaly have smaller than normal heads and their brains do not develop properly.

11 a.m.
The World Health Organization says a reported case of sexually transmitted Zika virus is raising concerns. Spokesman Gregory Hartl says WHO is organizing and supporting research about the mostly mosquito-borne virus and "under what conditions is it transmitted and via which routes other than the mosquito route." Speaking in Geneva on Wednesday, Hartl said that for now WHO believes nearly all of cases are caused by transmission by mosquitoes. Zika has been linked to birth defects in the Americas. U.S. health officials say a person in Texas became infected with Zika through sex, in the first case of the illness being transmitted within the United States amid the current outbreak in Latin America. WHO says it has not yet issued any guidance on possible prevention of sexual transmission of Zika.

10:30 a.m.
The director of the Pan American Health Organization is saying that confirmation that the Zika virus can be transmitted sexually would change the paradigm of the quickly spreading epidemic.

Carissa Etienne made the comments Wednesday in Uruguay while attending an emergency meeting of health ministers from Latin America. Health officials in the U.S. state of Texas said Tuesday that a patient there acquired Zika through sex with an ill person who returned from Venezuela, where the virus was present. The Zika virus is usually spread through mosquito bites.

Etienne says that the Texas case has not been discussed at the summit. However, she wants to see a formal report on the case and study it further. In her words, "Obviously it would bring a new dimension to the Zika problem."

10:20 a.m.
Brazil's Butantan Institute is seeking to develop a vaccine to combat the Zika virus by adapting an existing one for dengue. The Sao Paulo-based institute is spearheading research against the Zika virus that has  quickly spread throughout Brazil and the rest of Latin America. Butantan's Director Jorge Kalil says the technology that was developed in the Brazilian vaccine against dengue could be modified. He says one of the possibilities would be to add a gene containing a key protein in the Zika virus. Another alternative would be to create an attenuated Zika virus using a method similar to the one in the development of the dengue vaccine. Kalil's comments were published Wednesday on the official news agency of the Research Support Foundation of the State of Sao Paulo.

10:10 a.m.
A World Health Organization's spokesman says it's time for science to "step up" and tackle the "the very concerning" cases of microcephaly that could be linked to the mosquito-borne Zika virus.

Christian Lindmeier made the comments on Wednesday, a day after the U.N. health agency declared Zika a global public health emergency. No vaccine exists. Speaking via Skype from Geneva to British broadcaster Sky News, Christian Lindmeier also urged people to "keep everything on a rational level" because "not every mosquito you see flying around on the wall is an infected mosquito." Zika has been linked to brain deformities in babies in Latin America. Several thousand cases of microcephaly have been reported in Brazil since October, although researchers have so far not proven a definitive link to the virus.

9 a.m.
Argentina is reporting a second person in the country is confirmed to be infected with Zika. The health ministry in the central Cordoba province said Wednesday that the patient is a 68-year-old man who was infected abroad. He is known to have recently traveled to Venezuela's Margarita Island.  The provincial health ministry says he's evolving well. Argentine authorities confirmed last week that a Colombian woman who lives in Buenos Aires had been infected with the Zika virus. Officials say the 23-year-old woman became ill while in Colombia.

8 a.m.
Ireland has reported its first two cases of the mosquito-borne Zika virus but says both patients are in good condition and neither is pregnant. Wednesday's statement from the Health Service Executive of Ireland declined to identify either patient. The agency says both patients were unrelated, had recently returned to Ireland from countries where the virus is prevalent, and were recovering well from their fever. Zika is not typically lethal in adults but is linked to birth defects, making the virus particularly dangerous for pregnant women. Irish authorities say they expect to detect more Zika cases in Ireland, partly because of the substantial volume of Irish aid workers who fly back and forth from developing countries.

7:30 a.m.
France's health minister says two French regions in the Caribbean are facing an epidemic of the Zika virus, and the government is sending extra hospital equipment and preparing extra medical staff to combat it. Marisol Touraine told reporters Wednesday that Martinique and French Guiana have had 2,500 potential cases and about 100 confirmed Zika cases since mid-December, including 20 pregnant women and two people suffering a temporary paralysis condition called Guillain-Barre syndrome. A few cases have been reported in Guadeloupe and Saint Martin, also part of the French Caribbean. Nine people have come to mainland France with Zika this year, but Touraine said there is no risk of epidemic on the mainland. She said the government will expand access to testing and recommend condom use in the region.

TUESDAY

1:30 a.m.
Hours after reporting Chile's first confirmed Zika infection, Chilean authorities have listed two more cases from the virus that is spreading rapidly in Latin America. The Chilean Health Ministry says all three Zika cases reported Tuesday were contracted outside Chile. It says one person was infected while traveling in Venezuela, one in Colombia and one in Brazil. All are recovering. Chile doesn't have infestations of the Aedes aegypti mosquito, which can carry such diseases as Zika, dengue and chikungunya. The World Health Organization says Zika is likely to spread to every country in the Americas where the Aedes aegypti is found. That is every nation but Canada and Chile.

12:15 a.m.
Brazilian officials have lowered the country's number of suspected microcephaly cases, to 3,670 from 3,893 on Jan. 20. Brazil's Heath Ministry says the rare brain defect in babies has been confirmed in 404 of those cases. The ministry says microcephaly cases since Oct. 22 have been confirmed in 156 cities in nine states, most in Brazil's impoverished northeast. That region is the epicenter of the outbreak of the Zika virus. The report published Tuesday says 17 of the 404 confirmed microcephaly cases have been linked to Zika infections. Infants with microcephaly have smaller than normal heads and their brains do not develop properly. Many fetuses with the condition are miscarried, and others die during birth or shortly after. Those who survive suffer from developmental and health problems.

10:50 p.m.
The Brazilian Health Ministry says Brazil's health minister and the U.S. secretary of health and human Services have discussed ways the two countries can work together to create a vaccine against the Zika virus and combat the Aedes aegypti mosquito that transmits the virus. An emailed statement from the ministry says the Health Minister Marcelo Castro and U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Sylvia Mathes Burwell talked by phone Tuesday. It says the two also agreed to accelerate current investigations into infections causes by arboviruses like Zika that may be linked to cases of microcephaly and Guillain-Barre syndrome. The statement says technicians of the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will meet with technicians of the Brazilian Health Ministry and of three biomedical and clinical research centers. The meeting is scheduled for Feb. 20 in Brazil.

10:20 p.m.
A Brazilian city is cancelling its Carnival celebrations and will use the money set aside for the annual festivities to fight the mosquito that carries the fast-spreading Zika virus and other diseases. The Capivari municipality in Sao Paulo state says on its website that the $25,000 saved will be spent on prevention measures, including eradicating mosquito breeding grounds. Carnival is Brazil's biggest popular party. But the Zika virus has recently been linked with a spiraling rise in reported cases of microcephaly -- a rare birth defect causes babies to be born with unusually small heads and can lead to lasting developmental problems. Brazil's government has sent about 220,000 troops to battle the Aedes aegypti mosquito that transmits Zika, dengue, chikungunya and yellow fever.

9:30 p.m.
Health officials say a patient in Dallas County, Texas, has acquired the Zika virus through sex.
Dallas County Health and Human Services said Tuesday it received confirmation from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The patient was infected after having sexual contact with an ill person who returned from a country where Zika was present. The Zika virus is usually spread through mosquito bites. Investigators have been exploring the possibility the virus also can be spread through sex. It was found in one man's semen in Tahiti, and there was report of a Colorado researcher who caught the virus overseas and apparently spread it to his wife back home in 2008. Health officials note there are no reports of Zika being locally transmitted by mosquitoes in Dallas county.

9:05 p.m.
Nicaragua is confirming its first two cases of the Zika virus in pregnant women. Government spokeswoman Rosario Murillo says four women have tested positive for the virus in the Central American nation, including two who are three and one-half and four months pregnant. That brings the country's total known cases of Zika to 15. Murillo says the country is monitoring World Health Organization recommendations and has directed local health authorities to pay close attention to pregnant women who may have contracted Zika. She noted Tuesday that not all pregnant women infected with Zika give birth to babies with the rare condition known as microcephaly.

8:45 p.m.
Chile is reporting its first case of a person infected with the Zika virus that has spread fast throughout Latin America. The Chilean Infectology Society confirmed the case Tuesday without providing any details about the patient. It only said that the virus had been transmitted while the person was abroad and that it was first recorded several weeks ago. There are no cases of local infection so far. Some Chilean travelers have been suspected of carrying the virus but this is Chile's first confirmed case of someone infected abroad. The World Health Organization says Zika is likely to spread to every country in the Americas where the mosquito that carries it can be found except for Canada and continental Chile.

8 p.m.
Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff is promising that no resources will be spared in the fight against the quickly spreading Zika virus, believed to be the cause of smaller than normal heads in some infants. Rousseff addressed Congress on Tuesday, the day after the World Health Organization deemed the virus an international emergency. Researchers believe that a spike in cases of microcephaly, or babies born with small heads, has been caused by the virus. The president says: "resources will not be lacking." She has recounted what Latin America's most populous country had done since the outbreak was detected last year, such as sending troops to spray areas infested by mosquitoes. Rousseff is facing impeachment proceedings and low popularity amid an economic crisis, but says she expects Congress' support.

6:55 p.m.
Swiss International Air Lines says female flight attendants and pilots won't be required to fly to Sao Paulo, Brazil, if they don't want to because of the Zika virus outbreak. The Swiss carrier, a subsidiary of Germany's Lufthansa, says in a statement that it's advising any pilot or member of cabin crew who is "in the phase of family planning" to speak with their gynecologist before flying to Brazil. Tuesday's statement said the company will "until further notice" take into account requests of such employees who ask not to be deployed to Brazil. Sao Paulo is Swiss' main destination in South America. The World Health Organization on Monday declared a global emergency over the explosive spread of the mosquito-borne Zika virus, which has been linked to birth defects in the Americas.

2:20 p.m.
UNICEF is asking for $9 million for its programs in the Americas to curb the spread of Zika virus and lessen its impact on babies and their families across the region. In a statement issued on Tuesday, the U.N. children's agency said it would focus on educating communities in Brazil on how to avoid being bitten by mosquitoes and how to wipe out their breeding sites. Dr. Heather Papowitz, UNICEF's senior adviser for health emergencies, commented: "Although there is still no conclusive evidence of the causal link between microcephaly and the Zika virus, there is enough concern to warrant immediate action,"

11:50 a.m.
The Middle East's biggest airline is offering refunds to passengers booked on flights to countries  affected by the Zika virus. Emirates said in a statement Tuesday there is "no impact on operations" for flights from its Dubai base to three South American cities: Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo in Brazil, and Buenos Aires, Argentina. It is nonetheless offering passengers the chance to get refunds or rebook to alternative destinations in the Americas, saying "special provisions have been put in place for customers advised to avoid the affected regions based on CDC (Centers for Disease Control) guidance." The offer covers tickets issued by Jan. 29 for travel through April 30. Fast-growing Emirates has emerged as a major long-haul carrier, and is the biggest operator of the Boeing 777 and the double-decker Airbus A380.

11:40 a.m.
Officials say laboratory tests have confirmed a fourth case Zika virus in Spain.
The southeastern regional government of Murcia said Tuesday that tests carried out by the National Microbiology Center confirmed the case of a man treated two weeks ago at a regional hospital after visiting an unspecified country affected by the virus. The man, who was not identified but was said to be middle-aged and a Spanish resident, has been given the all clear after been treated for the virus and to avoid contagion. The other three cases in Spain also concerned people who had traveled to affected regions in Latin America. WHO is recommending that visitors and residents in affected areas, especially pregnant women, take measures to avoid being bitten by mosquitoes that transmit the virus.

9:15 a.m.
Drugmaker Sanofi Pasteur says it is launching an effort to research and develop a vaccine to prevent the Zika virus. Sanofi's announcement Tuesday comes the day after the World Health Organization declared a global emergency over the explosive spread of the mosquito-borne virus, which has been linked to birth defects in the Americas. There is no treatment or vaccine for Zika, which is in the same family of viruses as dengue. Sanofi made the first licensed dengue vaccine shot, licensed last year in Brazil after years of scientific struggle to develop one. France-based Sanofi said in a statement Tuesday that its experience with the dengue vaccine "can be rapidly leveraged to help understand the spread" of Zika and "potentially speed identification of a vaccine candidate for further clinical development."